How much should a toy store spend on Google Ads?

There's no fixed number, but split whatever you spend roughly 50% Shopping or Performance Max, 30% Search, 10% Demand Gen and 10% YouTube if you sell your own brand. Expect to need more in November and December, when CPCs in toy accounts jump around 70%.

Can you target children with Google Ads?

No. Google turns off ads personalisation for users under 18, and ads on YouTube content made for kids can't be personalised or push children to buy. Toy stores should target the parents and relatives who actually pay.

When should a toy store start its Christmas Google Ads?

Start YouTube in late October, because it takes a few weeks to show any lift. Gmail and Discover come next, ahead of Black Friday. Shopping and Search budgets should be ready to rise from November, when most toy stores take around 30% of their yearly sales.

Is Performance Max good for toy stores?

Yes. Shopping and Performance Max are usually the biggest part of a toy store budget, around half of it. They work best when products are split by performance, so bestsellers get the money and products that never sell are cut quickly.

Does a small toy store need YouTube ads?

Only if it sells its own brand. YouTube builds demand for a brand people can later search for. A reseller of other brands' toys is usually better off putting that budget into Search and Shopping or Performance Max.

Google Ads for Toy Stores: The Complete 2026 Guide

Google Ads for a toy store works best when about 50% of the budget goes to Shopping or Performance Max, 30% to Search, 10% to Demand Gen (Gmail and Discover) and 10% to YouTube, the last part only if you sell your own brand. Plan the whole year around your peak season, and put most of the money behind your bestsellers.

That split comes from the five toy store accounts I’ve run over the last three years. This guide covers how to divide the budget, when toy season really starts, how to set up Shopping, and what Google does and doesn’t let you do when your products are for children. Each channel also has its own deeper guide, linked below.

Which Google Ads campaigns should a toy store run?

A toy store should run four types of campaigns, each with a different job:

Campaign	Job for a toy store	Share of budget
Shopping or Performance Max	Sells products people are already looking for	~50%
Search	Catches searches for specific brands and categories	~30%
Demand Gen: Gmail and Discover	Branding and light retargeting before Black Friday and Christmas	~10%
YouTube	Builds future demand and more searches for your brand	~10%, own brand only

If you resell other brands’ toys and don’t have a brand of your own, skip YouTube. In the accounts I run, that 10% is moved into Search and Shopping or Performance Max instead.

How should a toy store split its Google Ads budget?

Start from the split above, then let return on ad spend move money between campaigns. What counts as a good ROAS depends a lot on the type of toys you sell: margins on collectibles, building sets and outdoor toys are very different. So before you judge any campaign, work out your break-even ROAS. Anything above it makes money; anything below it doesn’t, however good it looks.

The bigger lever is how you split the budget between products. In every toy account I’ve run, the rule is the same:

Spend most of the money on bestsellers. They have the data, the reviews and the stock.
Segment campaigns by ROAS, so products that earn don’t share a budget with products that don’t.
Cut products that don’t sell as fast as you can. That frees up stock (and cash) for new products, which in toys arrive every season.

When is toy season for Google Ads?

For most toy stores, toy season is November and December: in the accounts I run, around 30% of the year’s sales come in those two months. And everyone knows it. In the same period, CPCs jump around 70%, so your budget buys far fewer clicks just when it matters most.

But it depends on what you sell:

Easter brings a big spike for some toy stores.
Late spring, before summer, is the peak for stores selling kids’ bikes and other outdoor toys.

So look at your own sales by month before copying anyone’s calendar, including mine. The market is moving too. In the US, toy sales grew 6% in 2025, to $30.3 billion in tracked retail sales (Circana via The Toy Association).

How should a toy store set up Shopping and Performance Max?

Set up Shopping and Performance Max so you control which products get the money. Google will otherwise spread the budget across your whole catalogue, including the hundreds of products that will never sell.

Group products by performance: bestsellers, steady sellers, new products, and products that don’t sell. Give each group its own campaign or asset group, with its own ROAS target.
Give new products a short, fair test. In toys, new lines arrive constantly. Let them get some data, then move them up or out.
Remove what doesn’t sell. A product that has had its chance and still doesn’t sell is costing you money and taking up stock.
Watch what’s growing. In 2025, games and puzzles grew 37% in US dollar sales, and toys priced $30 to $69.99 grew 18%, faster than any other price range (Retail Dive). If your catalogue has products in growing categories, make sure they get budget.

Can you advertise toys to children on Google?

No. You advertise toys to the adults who buy them. Google turns off ads personalisation for users under 18 and restricts sensitive ad categories for them, on YouTube, Google Display Ads and Display & Video 360 (Google Ads policy).

On YouTube content set as “made for kids”, the rules are stricter (Google Ads policy):

No personalised ads and no third-party trackers.
Ads must not incite children to buy a product.
No misleading claims, and no suggestion that a toy will make a child more popular.

In practice: target parents, grandparents and other gift buyers, write the ad for them, and show the toy as it really is. The YouTube guide covers this in more detail.

What does a toy store’s Google Ads year look like?

Here’s how the year looks in the toy accounts I run, for a store whose peak is Christmas:

When	What to do
January to February	Clear out products that didn’t sell over Christmas. Review which products and campaigns earned above break-even.
March to April	Push Easter products if your store has an Easter spike.
April to June	Outdoor toys and kids’ bikes: this is their peak before summer.
July to September	Test new products. Build customer and visitor lists for later.
Late October	Start YouTube (own brand only). Don’t expect any lift for the first few weeks.
November, before Black Friday	Gmail and Discover for branding and light retargeting. Raise Shopping and Search budgets.
November to December	Peak: about 30% of sales, CPCs around 70% higher. Keep budget on bestsellers and products in stock.

Where do YouTube, Gmail and Discover fit for a toy store?

Their job is to make the Shopping and Search campaigns work better later. YouTube builds demand and searches for your brand, so it starts first, in late October. Gmail and Discover do branding and light retargeting in the weeks before Black Friday and Christmas.

Each has its own guide:

YouTube ads for toy stores: when to start, targeting parents, measuring brand search lift.
Gmail ads for toy stores: retargeting and gift buyers before the holidays.
Google Discover ads for toy stores: getting into the feed before Black Friday.
Google Search ads for toy stores: the searches that actually sell, and the ones to block.